Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 406: To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the total number of prisoners serving sentences of three years or more; the number of such prisoners who have been released on day, compassionate or supervised or other release in the same period; the number of applications made, granted and refused in that time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6929/12]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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I can inform the Deputy that on 31 January 2012 there were 3,590 sentenced persons in custody; of this 2,326 persons were serving sentences of 3 years or more. On the same date, there were 839 persons on temporary release; this figure includes 53 persons who were participating in the Community Return Programme.

It is not possible to provide the Deputy with the other information requested as this would require the manual examination of records. Such an examination would require a disproportionate and inordinate amount of staff time and effort and can not be justified in current circumstances where there are other significant demands on resources. It is anticipated though that the new Prison Information Management System (PIMS) which will shortly become "live", will be able to provide such data in the future.